Hope
by Phiametta
Summary: MandalorianxOC (Dyn Jarren) -Dark themes in the first chapter. The Mandalorian takes on a job that is not related to the Guild. The target? Something...someone he wasn't expecting.
1. Chapter 1

Drunken laughter ceased when he walked through the automatic doors.

His handler was in his normal spot at the bar. Once he was sitting across from him the room returned to normal rowdiness. "Any more?" The Mandalorian tossed finished bounty trackers on the table and his payment was slipped across the table.

"I do have two new ones. They should be easy work for you but they don't pay much."

"I'll take them." He needed the credits. They were becoming harder and harder to come by these days.

"I'm not too sure I'll have more by the time you get back, business is slow. The Mandalorian sighed, nodded and pushed his chair out to leave.

On his way out a singular voice caused him to turn.

"Hey, hunter, I have a job for you. It might be a tad tougher than what you're used to though. Think you can handle it?" A gruff voice called out to him. "Imagine having about 1000 bounty pucks in your possession. I'll pay that much for one job." The voice came from someone sitting in a corner booth of the establishment. He had three armed and armored guards all staring at him, all shifting to a more defensive position as he looked them over.

His attention was caught.

Cautiously he stepped closer to the eccentric looking man. "Do you have a tracker?" The guards let him pass to reveal a frightened-looking, scantily clad female sitting across from him. She had a slave tracker on the base of her head.

"No, no tracker on this one. This one was …different." A faint smile appeared on his lips. It gave the Mandalorian the chills.

"I'm looking for this." A hologram of a woman appeared in his palm. "It was stolen from me almost a year ago. A rival faction raided my territory. I've hired countless bounty hunters since then, none have returned alive. And it's time my property was returned to me."

"Where would I find her?"

"The faction who stole my possession resides on Orvax IV. I have no doubt this is where you would find it." The Mandalorians' spine shivered every time he referred to the woman as a possession rather than a human being. But he had dealt with his type before.

"Understood." Credits were credits. He couldn't pick and choose how he got them.

Once settled in his spaceship he punched in the coordinates that were given to him. According to his charts, Orvax IV was almost a week away and he had enough rations for only two days. He'd have to fuel up before he started his trek across the galaxy.

* * *

Including six days of travel, it took eight and a half days to find the exact location of the faction he was looking for.

"You stupid bitch." She was shoved hard to the floor then was rewarded with a kick to the stomach before she had time to curl up and protect her soft parts. The kick hit her diaphragm and she was gasping for air when she heard blaster fire coming from the hallway.

"How many times do I have to tell you-" She didn't even know what she did wrong this time, and she wasn't about to find out either.

Two shots were fired and the two men at her side fell to the ground next to her. Sizzling holes in both of their foreheads.

Oh no.

Oh no oh no oh no.

She flopped around on the floor to get a look at their killer. He had sent a Mandalorian bounty hunter this time. He was the first one to come this far. She'd heard the stories of a dozen bounty hunters trying to enter the compound.

"Get up." It was more of a sigh than a command. He noticed her shackled wrists as she struggled to get up on her own two feet.

"Who has the key?" She motioned to one of the bodies at her feet.

He searched his pockets and found it, then noticed the key had a button on it and figured it wouldn't do anything pleasant.

"What does this do?" His thumb hovered over the button and he watched her entire button tense up and eyes squeezed shut.

"A shock?" She nodded.

"Do I need this?"

She shook her head no.

He firmly yet gently took each of her forearms to uncuff her. The shackles fall to the floor with a clang then a rattle. He didn't fail to notice that her wrists had scars on top of scars obviously from cuffs.

He gave her a small shove towards the door, "Walk in front of me, don't try to run unless you want to get shot.

His words echoed in her ears. Maybe this would be her easy way out.

She waited until they were clear of the building and was just about to bolt too, but he anticipated it, somehow, and his gloved hand shot out and grabbed her wrist and slammed her back against a wall. A hand now wrapped around her throat.

"What did I say?" To prove her point, she didn't fight back but pressed her neck against his glove. He let go in an instant.

What was wrong with this girl? He pulled her away from the wall and kept his left hand on her right elbow as they walked to his ship.

To keep an eye on her, he made her climb into the cockpit for takeoff.

* * *

She wasn't sure if he'd allow her to climb back down the ladder, so she stood up and gaged his reaction. There was none, or rather, none that she could physically see, so she climbed down quickly. Hoping to find something that would help her cause.

And she found it, He had a carbonite machine on his ship. That could be useful. She pressed a few buttons.

* * *

He had snuck up behind her like he had so many times before with other bounties. Or he thought he did, she didn't jump like everyone else. Rather started speaking when he was behind her.

"Before you freeze me in carbonite tell me who hired you?" She turned around and backed herself into the chamber.

Behind his mask, his eyebrows shot up in confusion.

"Please tell me." He didn't see any reason for him not to keep that information from her.

"He didn't give me his name, only said you had been taken from him a year ago." All the remaining color drained from her face.

"He's offering a lot of money for you."

His ship shook with the impact of a blaster.

"Shit." The ship shook again, this time it was from the lock of a tractor beam.

* * *

They got in through the top hatch. He was knocked out before he knew what was going on.

When he woke up, his ship was drifting in open space. He searched the ship, just in case, but it was of no use. They took her.

Suddenly curious, he climbed down the ladder to the main cabin to see what buttons she had pushed. He heard them being pushed when he had snuck up on her before. He pressed the settings button and he forgot to breathe for a moment.

She had set the computer to a different carbon freezing process. One that didn't preserve life.

* * *

"You'll think again about running away now bitch." They broke her ankles and then her wrists for fighting back. That was after beating the shit out of her for forcing them to go after her. Like it was even her fault. But she didn't mind.

She'd rather be stuck here than with him. At least here she was left alone for ninety percent of the time. At least here she had time to heal. It had been a few days without incident. And she had begun to believe that they wouldn't be seeing more of that bounty hunter.

That was until explosions were heard. Timed explosions, five went off one minute after the other. After the first one, no one flinched. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence. But when the second one went off, everyone paused what they were doing. Then the third one went off and everyone grabbed a blaster and headed out to investigate.

She heard the bodies drop. And the firing ceased to nothing.

The Mandalorian was back. He came through the final door that separated the two, gasping for breath, blaster raised.

His eyes saw her wrists first, then saw her feet. She wouldn't be walking out of here. He holstered his weapon.

"Please, just leave me here." He stumbled closer to her.

"I rigged this place to blow in less than five minutes."

"And your worth far too much to leave here when that happens.

Her eyes closed in resignation.

He knelt beside her, "Let me know if I'm hurting you." He carefully put her right arm around his shoulder, hooked his right arm around the backs of her knees and wrapped his left around her back and lifted with his knees. The initial jolt of being lifted caused a whimper to escape her lips.

They made it safely out of the building before the explosives were triggered. She saw the bodies littered in and outside of the building she was being held captive in.

The trek to his ship was a long one. Luckily for him he found a land speeder just outside of the compound. He placed her inside of it gently before hopping into the driver's seat and turning it around to head for his ship.

He had to land much further away this time to avoid detection. After a few moments of being in the speeder, he glanced at her. She was sitting awkwardly, unable to find any position that didn't cause her pain. Her head was tilted back, eyes closed and tears streaming down her face. He looked away quickly, finding it harder and harder to keep his original plan of taking her back to the one she feared so much. But he needed the money. With the amount he would be paid, he wouldn't have to work for years. He had to keep thinking about that part. The credits.

The credits.

The credits.

He wasn't as careful lifting her out of the landspeeder, causing a hiss to get by her teeth. He placed her in the small mess/sleeping area before climbing up to the cockpit to get his spacecraft off the retched planet as soon as possible and into space. He found a small, uninhabited moon to land on far enough away where they wouldn't be detected. He climbed back down to the mess to splint up her broken joints. He was no medic though, she would need a proper one to be sure everything was set properly to heal. But that wasn't part of his job description.

"I have to make a tomorrow for fuel and supplies. We'll reach our destination in about five days. Are you hungry?" He finally looked up to meet her eyes, her red and puffy eyes. His throat tightened. She shook her head no to the food. Even though she was skin and bone.

Just in case, he disabled the Carbonite machine on his way back up to the cockpit. He kept tabs on her the next few hours, he was dozing off in his chair when he heard a shrill scream, then quiet, desperate pleas of 'stop, please stop.' There was no way he was sleeping now. Not when he was questioning his humanity. Could he send this woman to her death? And from what he gathered, a slow torturous death.

The credits..

He locked her in the mess room. His ship was connected to the fueling station and he was gathering supplies from the traders.

* * *

She heard the door lock after he left. Then glanced down to the knife she lifted from his boot when he was splinting one of her wrists.

A few hours later he went back to his ship and put his new supplies in the cargo hold to organize later.

First, he wanted to check on her. He found her with a cloudy, almost lifeless eyes and a pool of blood beneath her. Her inner wrists both had bleeding gashes made from his own knife that was sitting on the table next to her.

"What were you thinking?"

"You're taking me to a place worse than the one you found me in. Imagine that for a second. Worse. He broke my ankles, now I can't run away. He broke my wrists, now I can't fight back, but I would have stayed there because I can handle that. The person you are taking me to, he's worse. I won't go back to him alive. I've suffered enough. You can bring me in cold. That way you'll at least get part of your credits. And you don't have to put up with me any longer."

He processed her words for a moment. Then tore a section of his cape and wrapped her bleeding wrists tightly.

"You're no bounty hunter. Bounty hunters don't go after the innocent. Please…just let me die."

"No."

"Please!" More tears rolled down her face. "You don't know what he'll do to me…again." She tried pulling off the makeshift bandages.

"Stop it!" he hauled her up and carried her over to the carbonite machine. He started turning the machine back on.

"I should have done this long ago." He made sure the settings were back to preserve life.

"No! Please!"

He pressed the button.

AN: It's been over five years since I uploaded anything for the world to read. Thoughts?


	2. Chapter 2

She woke up in a sterilized smelling environment, but she couldn't see where she was because…she couldn't see. Temporary loss of vision was a side effect of being frozen in carbonite.

"Oh good, you're awake." She jumped at the unfamiliar male voice exclaimed. "I'll get the eye drops so your eyes recover quicker." Whoever it was set something down and then she heard the sound of the pneumatic doors open then close.

Where the hell was she? She tried to sit up but couldn't do to restraints on her wrists and ankles. But there was no pain when she moved her hands and feet when she pulled at her restraints. Now she was really starting to freak out.

Blinded, bound and not knowing where she was or who was with her was stressing her out.

The beeping of her heart rate monitor must have been annoying because the Mandalorian who had to be somewhere to her left, murmured, Calm down." His words did nothing but make the beeping more rapid.

"Calm down? How am I supposed to do that? Especially after you froze me in carbonite?" A door opened and footsteps tapped closer and closer to her.

"I'm going to put these eye drops in your eyes and your sight should come back within seconds." A hand pressed on her forehead to make sure she didn't move and she started shaking. "Look forward for me." The person commanded softly.

She felt a warm substance hit her eyes and she blinked rapidly, light filtering though and after a handful more blinks she could see almost normally. Her eyes were sensitive to the bright medical lights. The doc dimmed the lights for her.

"How's that? Better." They made eye contact and that alone telling him the drops worked. She didn't answer just started pulling on her restraints again.

"Where am I?"

"You're safe dear, this is a medical facility." The doctor left, promising he'd be back later to check on her.

"Where am I?" She repeated.

"The doc wasn't lying, this is a hospital."

"But where?"

"Less than a Parsec from Orvax IV. We're in a space station. Stop shaking." He walked over, sat on the edge of her bed and put a hand on her shoulder. Hoping to ease the trembling and try to comfort her.

But that didn't work.

"I'm not taking you back to him."

Her trembling ceased for a moment as she processed his words. Then she got to thinking, "He won't like that. He'll just send someone else, another bounty hunter to collect me. He's a rich man. He's been sending hunters for a year. And he won't stop until he has me."

"It would be hard for him to send more people after you if he's dead."

She blinked a few times, "What?"

"You're not going back. But I am. To kill him."

"I don't believe you. I'm sure he offered you a lot of money, there's no reason for you to not take me back."

The Mandalorian let out a long sigh then looked toward the hospital windows. He stood up from his spot on the bed and walked over to a control panel and pressed a button that fogged up the windows for privacy. He returned to his spot and slid his helmet off his head and rested it in his lap.

Dark brown eyes peered down at her. And a face much more handsome than she expected. She didn't know what to expect, but that wasn't it.

He noticed the beeping on the monitor next to her was decreasing.

"I'm not taking you back." His voice, no longer altered by the mask, was heavy with emotion and thick with promise.

"And you're not going to try to kill yourself again."

She allowed herself to relax for a moment. Watching his expression for any hint of a lie.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not yet."

"And you talk about me being suicidal? What you're talking out is madness. If you thought getting to me out of that compound on Orvax was hard it'll be nothing compared to trying to get to him."

"On a scale of 1-10 Orvax IV was like a three in difficulty. I'll come up with a plan to defeat Sanuck." He stated optimistically.

"You should take your helmet off more often."

"Mandalorians are often caught sleeping with their armor and helmet on. It's like a second skin."

"But why?"

"My people are warriors. Our armor also serves as a mask that hides our identity. Taking off our helmets only happens in private."

"But I can't see your eyes if you have your helmet on all the time." She liked his eyes. And he liked that she was finally looking at him and not his mask.

"Why did you freeze me?"

"So I could get you here without you bleeding to death, or trying to kill yourself again. I can't pilot a ship and watch a suicidal woman at the same time."

"I'm not suicidal."

She received a, 'you're kidding me' look.

"I don't want to die. But being with him again is worse than death. Untie me." She struggled against her restraints pointedly.

"What happens if I untie you? You've tried it so many times before what's stopping you from doing it again?"

"Promise me that you won't let him take me, and I won't try it."

"I promise." He undid her restraints.

"When did you change your mind?"

"You threw me off when you were about to run away when I threatened to shoot you if you tried. When you cut your wrists, then tried to rip off the bandages was the final straw. I've turned in many bounties. They try to bribe me, they try to shoot me on my ship. You did neither. None of them reacted the way you did."

"What's your name?"

"Corra. Yours?"

"Dyn."

"Dyn." She repeated sleepily. "We need to get out of here." Her eyelids were in a losing battle to stay open.

"We'll leave once you've rested." The last thing she remembered was him putting his helmet back on before she fell asleep.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

There were some odd characters at the space station. Corra noticed many familiar and a few unfamiliar species as she followed Dyn around the space station. He could tell that her previous captures didn't let her out and about much do to the fact that she could barely keep up with him.

They stopped at a pub for some real food before they headed for his ship. The pub was crowded and loud making both of them on edge, he was just better at hiding it. They took the food back to his ship so he could eat somewhere where he could safely take his helmet off.

She ate before he did. He wanted to eat alone.

"We should go back to Orvax IV." She said when he joined her in the cockpit.

"Why would you want to go back to that wasteland?" She moved out of the middle seat and plopped herself in the one on his right.

"There's a sizable weapons cache. They stored their credits there too. Might as well get it before someone else does."

"If it hasn't been raided already."

"It's well hidden."

"You know where it is?" He spun in his chair to face her.

"I know where it is, I know where all the traps are and I know all the passcodes to get in."

"And how did you happen to come by all this information?"

"Unimportant."

"Oh no," he leaned forward, "that's very important, and if you want me to even consider going back, you're going to tell me how you got all your information."

She shrugged, "I was held captive in that place for almost a year. You hear things. Especially when the people around you don't expect you to listen. Or remember."

"You could turn around and sell anything you do want." She added.

He was quiet, trying to figure out why she would do this for him.

"I just want to pay you back." She said quietly, guessing the reason behind his lack of response.

"Pay me back?"

"For all the credits you won't be receiving from Sanuck."

"Is there anything worthwhile in the weapons cache?"

A slow smile spread on her lips, "I think you would approve of some of the new stuff they have. They aren't…weren't smart enough to operate some of it."

* * *

Word had not spread to the right ears yet. The compound was just as Dyn had left it. Except now it smelled worse. Rodents, birds, bugs, they were having a feast on all the dead left to rot. Two of the bodies they walked by were missing their eyes. Corra tripped over her own feet because she couldn't take her eyes off the site.

In the center of the compound was a fountain. This fountain was the entrance to an underground vault. One only had to step on two specific decorative stones surrounded the fountain to reveal the entrance. The stones fell to create a spiral staircase to a long tunnel.

"Stay behind me, there are a few traps that need to be deactivated."

She carefully did so, and after putting in the final passcode to the vault, the door slid away revealing a room with all kinds of different weapons. And a sizable stack of credits in the center.

Enough that she was confident he wouldn't need to take her to Sanuck if he needed the credits.

Corra selected a blaster from the weapons that were hung on the walls and left the Mandalorian to make sure they were truly alone in the compound.

She played back the security system and saw no movement apart from the scavengers picking at the dead bodies. That satisfied her enough and returned to the fountain where Dyn was loading crates onto a land-speeder.

"Do me a favor and take this back to my ship and unload everything while I get the next load ready."

They had ample time to load his ship with weapons, ammo and a fair amount of credits. The last of the crates were being loaded onto the speeder when she heard a noise where there shouldn't be any. "Did you hear something?" She thought she heard voices, but everyone here was dead. He crept to the corner of the building and peered around it.

"Pirates. Must be here for the same reason we are." She closed the entrance to the vault and followed him to take a look. There were around fifty of them, and maybe ten of them were headed their way. And they were blocking the only way out.

"Take your helmet off." She demanded.

"What?"

"I have a plan, trust me." She pulled him to the shadows, lifted his helmet off his head, and then tugged him to her. Corra ignored the shocked look on his face and pulled his lips to hers.

This way, they wouldn't see his face, just his back, and she would be hidden from their view as well. What he was doing would be obvious to the pirates, she had her hand that wasn't holding his helmet in his soft hair.

"What do we have here?"

"I hope you know what you're doing." He whispered to her.

"Just put your helmet back on. And stay in front of me." He listened to her, slowly put his mask on then turned to face the pirates.

"A Mandalorian?" One of them questioned, "I haven't seen one of your kind in a while."

She waited for them to get closer, for them to relax a little. For them to think they had caught them unawares.

"I thought you were all extinct."

"I saw one a few months ago," Another one stated. "So not extinct, but an endangered species, that is about to become even more…endangered."

"You take the ones on the left."

"What?" She stepped out from behind him and fired five shots. Five bodies hit the ground.

His half hit the ground a few seconds later, only one of them had fired a shot. His shock was evident even behind his mask.

They peeked around the corner again, they could hear voices but couldn't see where they were coming from. They bolted to a better vantage point.

His ship was out of the pirate's eye-site and from what they could see, still safe.

"How important is that last load to you?" She questioned him.

"Worthless, leave it." They snuck back to his ship unseen.

"You're hurt." She noticed a dark spot between his shoulder and chest plate.

"It's nothing." He grunted, closing the door.

"Nothing my ass, where's your med kit?" He must have been hit during the firefight.

"We need to get up in the air before we can worry about anything else."

He heard her mumbling and only caught two words, stubborn, asshole. But he was right, they needed to get off-planet.

"Don't move." She threatened and headed to the cockpit.

"What are you doing?" He growled at her. But she was already up the ladder. He sat down on one of the new crates they brought aboard.

Five seconds later he heard the tell-tail signs of his ship turning on. Another five seconds passed and he heard the landing gears folding in and the ship taking off, then three shots were fired from his ship and she was climbing back down the ladder. That little minx had a lot of explaining to do.

"Where's the med-kit?"

"What did you do?"

"Disabled their ships, where's your med-kit?"

"In the mess."

"Good, get over there then."

If he wasn't so annoyed he would have smirked at her authoritative tone. But he did listen and followed her towards the mess room.

* * *

AN: This chapter was originally a lot longer, but then it got too long so I split it up so you guys would have something to read sooner rather than later.

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	4. Chapter 4

AN: Sorry it took so long. Holidays... Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"Sit," Corra commanded and pointed to the same spot he had found her bleeding to death by the table. The Mandalorian sat down stubbornly in the assigned seat. She could feel his glare even with the helmet on.

She had put his ship in auto-pilot. To where? He had no idea.

"You know, it'd be easier to patch you up if you took this off." She tugged at his chest-plate.

"It's staying on." The disappointment was plain in her eyes. She preferred when he took his helmet off. He seemed more human.

She was right-handed and his wound was on his right side so she had to get up close and personal for her arm to not be at an awkward angle. It would be easiest if she just sat in his lap but she doubted he'd allow that.

She injected him with a syringe, its contents would prevent any infections.

"Ow!"

"Stop being a baby. I've seen kids less sensitive than you."

"I'm not sensitive. You stabbed me with that thing like it was a knife and you wanted to kill me." He growled.

"I don't believe that. Not for a second. I bet you're a big softie underneath all that armor."

"Mandalorians aren't soft."

Then she sprayed the wound with an adhesive compound that would act as a bandage and heal the wound more quickly. She had to move the fabric underneath the armor to spray the entire wound, luckily for him, his armor caught most of the blast. He'd be dead if he hadn't been wearing it.

"Finished."

She followed him up the ladder after putting the medkit away and plopped herself down on his right side.

* * *

"I have a plan. But… it involves you. You would have to come with me."

"I-I don't know." She didn't want to be anywhere near that man.

"We go in, pretend that I am bringing you in for the bounty then I shoot him and get out. If it goes according to plan, you'll be free of him for good."

"And if your plan fails, I'll be." She gulped, not wanting to think about the answer.

"I haven't seen him in a year, I don't know if he keeps the same company. I don't know if he upped the security at his base. We'd be walking in blind. Plus, he keeps a small army with him. He's paranoid."

"What was security like a year ago?"

"He believed in strength in numbers more than technology." Meaning little droids and a lot of armed men.

"Are their normally guards with him?"

"Yes, a handful. All armed."

* * *

He paused before opening the hatch, a pair of cuffs in his hands.

She glanced at them and that up at him. Anxiety levels increasing by the minute.

"For appearances." She knew they were needed. He wouldn't believe them for a second if she walked in with no restraints. But it was becoming too much.

Both of them exited the ship, her much more hesitant them him. The closer they got the harder her heart hammered in her chest.

She stopped in her tracks, "I can't do this. What if it doesn't work?"

"Trust me, it'll work."

She shivered next to him, she suddenly didn't want to get any closer and he had to push her along with the hand he had on her back.

"Stick to the plan. It'll work." He whispered. But she had a bad feeling.

Painful memories flashed before her eyes as they became closer to the gates. Not long ago, she was ordered to kidnap a boy, an eight-year-old boy whose father hadn't paid back his debts. She remembers holding his hand as they both walked through the gates. Sure, Sanuck had commanded her to kidnap and or kill before, but this one was different. This was a child. Children shouldn't have to be the ones to pay for their parent's debts. But Sanuck believed in quite the opposite.

The boys' father couldn't pay back his debt, and most likely would never be able to, the son was taken in exchange. And the boy had no idea what was going on. Why his dad was leaving him with this strange man. Or why he was being auctioned off as a slave a day later.

As soon as they entered the compound, they were separated. She was searched and yanked into another room. She gave him one last worried glance before a door closed. They let the Mandalorian into a grand hall where several species were eating, talking and indulging other more sexual urges with slaves. Each of the slaves had the same tracking device the woman did when he first met the outlandish man. All of them paused what they were doing to turn their attention to him for a moment before continuing what they were doing.

"Mandalorian! I'm impressed. My men tell me you've brought what was stolen from me healthy and unharmed." The same man he met before, was sitting at the far end of the room with a plate of desserts on the table beside him.

"How'd you do it?"

"With my blaster. The normal way."

"No, no that's not what I meant. How did you get her here? I know she can be quite the handful. I know what goes on in that little head of hers. And I know that there was no way that she'd come back here, back to me, alive."

"I have a carbonite machine on my ship, it's useful in my profession."

"Don't lie to me. You would have delivered her still frozen if you were telling me the truth. I think I can safely conclude that you two had some plan to come here and kill me. She's told me that if I tried to get her back, she'd kill herself." He paused for a moment, then "Tell me Mandalorian, would you still follow through with your little plan if I offered you double the original amount?"

The Mandalorian blinked. Double?

"Double? You're not serious." Was he serious? What was so special about this woman that she was worth that amount of money?

"I am, in fact, serious." He waved his hand and a speeder hovered over to them. He walked over to it and opened one of the crates. It was loaded with credits.

"Take the speeder, and go to your ship. All you have to do is put this," he threw a small round device to him, "on the base of her neck." He caught it and examined it. It looked different than the device on the woman he had with him at their first meeting.

"What is it?"

"I call it the puppet master. What it does is not your concern." It not only makes the wearer incapable of resisting a command incapable of doing anything but what he commanded.

He wove his hand and that was the signal for his men to send her in. Before she walked through the door frame, she scanned the room, trying to gauge the situation. She stepped over to his side after a moment. Watching him closely.

He felt her trembling even through his armor.

"What's happening?" She whispered.

He didn't respond, nor look at her. He looked down at the device in his hands, but his helmet hid where his eyes were looking at.

"Dyn?"

Corra than saw the crate of credits. Dread slowly crept into her. Oh no.

"How do I know you won't shoot me when I walk out of here?"

"You've done me a great service. Everyone here knows that I pay for a service well done."

No. He couldn't.

Sanuck saw the war raging in the Mandalorians' head. He needed another push.

"There's enough credits here to not have to work another day in your life. Make the smart choice." Sanuck was smart enough to know that if the Mandalorian tried to save the girl, he would take a few men down with him. And good men were hard to come by.

"You told me to trust you." She said to the floor. But he heard her.

"You could buy yourself a small moon, a new home for you and your fellow Mandalorians. Or, what's left of them anyway."

"Was this your plan all along? Your real plan? Pretend that you and I were coming here to kill him." Her words turned cold, "It was a good plan, it worked. I should have cut my throat, not my wrists. Just do it." She was done. She moved her hair from her neck and bowed her head. Then looked up at him one last time, "Thank you for showing me how foolish I was," Then she turned and stared at the floor. "For having hope." Her shoulders sagged in defeat.

"Do it. I don't care anymore." Needle sharp, mechanical tendrils pierced the base of her neck and wormed their way in. What was at first a whimper of discomfort turned into screams of excruciating agony. Then nothing. She had collapsed to the ground. Her cheek rested on the concrete floor as she gasped for breath at the Mandalorians' feet. A metallic chain had woven itself around her neck into a collar.

"Good choice Mandalorian. You can go now. I'll have one of my men escort you and your credits to your ship. It was a pleasure doing business with you." Everyone in the room now had a weapon trained on him. The Mandalorian stood no chance of survival if he shot the man now.

"I don't need an escort," he said on his way out. He couldn't bear to look down

"My darling pet, you will love this one so much more than the last one. You'll be less robotic and more like a marionette. All I have to do is say the words and you'll listen. And I get to see those lovely tears fall down those cheeks as you complete each of my demands."

He'd never seen so many credits in his life. He could retire comfortably. He wouldn't have to…

"Come here my pet, I've missed you so much."

..Wouldn't have to hunt down anymore lowlife bail jumpers.

He heard her gut-wrenching sob as the door closed and locked behind him.

But then what was he going to do with the rest of his life?

* * *

Wellllllll? Review!


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